Saying that this government called the coal tender is an utter lie – Ravi Karunanayake

2026-03-01 - 15:07

Former Finance Minister and MP Ravi Karunanayake says that the coal tender process was introduced during his tenure as Minister of Power and Energy. He also said that the government’s claim that coal was imported following a tender process for the first time in history is an outright lie. He made these remarks while attending a media briefing held in Colombo. He further stated, “The Public Utilities Commission previously asked the Electricity Board to increase prices, but they didn’t. Now they are requesting a 13% increase. When it comes to the coal issue, they claim no tender was called, but it was during my time as Power Minister that the tender process was introduced. Now, nine ships have arrived, coal is being unloaded, and all nine reports have issues. In such circumstances, the agreement can be halted. If anyone says that the tender was called during this time, it’s false. There are 37 ships of coal due. If there’s a delay, we will have to calculate the loss again. Currently, there’s an 8-billion-rupee loss.”